


hey boy, it's me, ya boy

by sourpastels



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Buzzfeed Unsolved, Attempt at Humor, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, I don't know what else to tag this as, M/M, They Host Buzzfeed Unsolved, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 00:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14344230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourpastels/pseuds/sourpastels
Summary: Woojin doesn't know what causes him more suffering: ghosts or Park Jihoon.





	hey boy, it's me, ya boy

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about this for a long time and since the superior season of unsolved comes back soon, have 3k of self-indulgent word vomit.

“Hello, and welcome to another episode of Buzzfeed unsolved, where we’ll be continuiong our ongoing investigation into the question...are ghosts real?”

Woojin knows Jihoon is shaking his head at the camera from the spot next to him and shoves him lightly. “You don’t have to do that every episode.”

 

It started like this:

Woojin had seen his first horror movie at the age of six, in the basement of a friends house with his snickering older brother behind them. He’d been too young to understand that ‘found-footage’ horror movies weren’t _actually_ found footage and no one bothered to tell him the truth.

From that moment on, he’d been kind of terrified, but also obsessed.

It stays a childhood fear until he’s old enough to get a bit more sense and his own computer. He ends up on a forum about hauntings for a dare, all his middle school friends _knowing_ how scared he is of ghosts.

He hates the thread, but after he goes home he finds himself checking back on it frequently.

The roots of obsession set into him, and spiral out, planting themselves in conspiracy theories and aliens and _real_ horror stories until he’s sixteen, supposed to be thinking about what he’s going to do after school, and realises this is kind of his only passion.

 

“Today we’ll be investigating the 101 church. It’s been abandoned since the 1800’s. They call it that because its thought that up to a hundred and one people have died within its walls.”

“One hundred and one?” Jihoon speaks up. “It’s tiny, it looks like it could barely hold my moms bookclub.”

“I never said they all died at the same time.”

They’re walking on a dirt path, surrounded by inky skies and tree branches reaching out like gnarled fingers. There’s a chill in the air, just biting enough to make you notice it, eerie enough just to set you on edge. Woojin jumps a little inside each time a twig breaks beneath their feet or a pebble skids under their weight. It’s not exactly dark, considering they have a whole camera crew with them who have to make sure they can be seen enough to be caught on camera, but it’s still _night_ and there’s something instinctively scary about that no matter how much of an artificial glow they flood their senses with.

“Ready to go in?” Woojin breathes.

They’re through the church’s fence and stood on its doorstep now, staring at the thick wood and brass knocker standing between them and whatever spirits could lurk inside.

Woojin has done this a few times now. This is the second season of his little show and he’s been in more haunted places in the last year than he thought he’d ever set foot near in his life, but still every time fear swirls his stomach into knots and his mind whispers _‘go back before it’s too late’._

 

It started like this:

Woojin ends up majoring in video editing. It’s not a passion but it’s an interest and he doesn’t have the brains for criminology or the gall to forget university all together to become a professional ghost hunter and conspiracy theorist.

He goes to college, he loses sleep and his sanity but he graduates and finds himself thrust out to the next level of what everyone older than him calls “the real world” as if he was living in a simulation until his twenties.

He didn’t know what jobs his degree would be useful for. He kind of wasn’t even expecting to get one. He definitely doesn’t expect his BuzzFeed application that he sent in for the meme to be accepted, approved, and replied to with a job offer, but it somehow happens.

He has at least three conspiracy theories as to why— only one of them includes Mothman.

His first day is a blur, but the one part he remembers in pure clarity is meeting Jihoon.

“Hey, newbie, ready to walk on legos?”

“I— what?” Woojin looks up to find a man, probably about his age, leaning against Woojin’s desk like he has every right to be there, and Woojin can’t even argue because honestly, he looks like he does. He looks like he belongs anywhere he wants to be, and the rest of them can do nothing but stare in awe.

“Walking on legos? The new video we’re shooting? Didn’t HR tell you about it?” The man quirks an eyebrow.

Woojin swallows. He knew BuzzFeed was a weird, weird place; he’s spent enough time procrastinating on the internet, after all. But, he was expecting his first few weeks here to be nothing but editing other people’s videos— that’s what they told him his job was, after all. He was definitely not expecting to have to walk on satan’s building blocks, and a shudder goes through him at the thought.

The man’s serious expression breaks into a smile. “Nah, I’m just messing with you. I mean, they have made me walk on legos before, but you’re good. Welcome to the company, I’m Jihoon.”

Woojin clasps the hand the man holds out and his voice is quiet when he replies with “Woojin.”

  


“I’m ready.” Jihoon pulls a pair of sunglasses out of nowhere and puts them on.

“What are those for?” Woojin asks, not really wanting to hear the answer.

“I’m protecting my eyes in case your gay ass bursts into flames."

Woojin wheezes. “My gay ass? What about yours?”

Jihoon shrugs. “If I’m going down, I’m taking your eyesight with me.”

The inside of the church is...basically what you’d expect from the inside of an abandoned church. Thick layers of dust cover everything from the floor to the statue of the Virgin Mary by the altar. Woojin is pretty sure a rat scurries into hiding the second they open the door, and he feels a little queasy because maybe the mystery of ghosts will never be solved but rats are unfortunately very real.

Jihoon points at where it ran off to. “Was that a ghost?” and honestly, this is his least favourite (read: favourite) of Jihoon’s running jokes.

“No, Jihoon, it was a rat.”

“Ghost rat.”

 

Woojin talks about the place as they walk around, as he always does. Jihoon works on the show with him but the whole concept is that he _doesn’t_ believe. Woojin is the believer, Jihoon is the skeptic, that’s the way it works on camera and off. This means that while Woojin pours himself into research of the history and legends around these places, Jihoon waits to hear more than he absolutely has to from Woojin’s own mouth. It isn’t that he doesn’t care, because he would never have agreed to work on the show if he didn’t, but the fact is that unsolved is Woojin’s baby and Jihoon is the slightly distant stepfather who steps into his role when needed but still loves his stepchild.

 

It started like this:

In the end, Woojin does end up working in front of the camera. The first time is at Jihoon’s behest, apparently desperate for an emergency replacement for the video planned to start shooting an hour after Sohye tripped over her dog and twisted her ankle.

Woojin tries to protest— he says that he has no camera experience, no idea what the video is even about, and doesn’t know enough about Sohye to fill whatever role she was supposed to play. Jihoon shuts him up with an “it will be fine. You’ll be with me.”

He finds himself going.

It turns out he’s a hit, especially his snaggle-toothed smile and his chemistry with Jihoon. It ends up a permanent thing, them doing videos together, and although it takes a few videos where he stumbles awkwardly over his words or forgets to speak at all until Jihoon pats him on the back, he’s surprised how easily he falls into it, how much he enjoys it. 

A couple of years and almost a name for himself later, he gets asked a question, as many people at BuzzFeed do because the company hires creatives, not mindless actors or soulless tech guys.

The question is “Are there any specific kind of videos you’d like to work on? Any ideas for something of your own?”

Woojin hesitates in the chair that feels too big for him because he feels small under the Chairman’s gaze. He’s about to say no, thank you, but he really just signed up as an editor, he’s not the creative type.

Then he remembers that there’s one thing he’s always been passionate about, one thing he would have loved to do as a job if only it was feasible, and blurts out a “yes” before he can stop himself.

There are a few more meetings, they talk it over, working out the details and the kinks, then, it’s greenlit and Woojin is told to pick a co-host as if there was any question who it would be.

  


The church is creepy. Maybe it’s not haunted— the EMF has done nothing so far, and he’s spotted nothing moving out of the corner of his eye, but it’s creepy. All of these places are— there’s something about places that are abandoned, that aren’t inhabited by human lives and are left to the quiet. It’s as if with no life in them, they take on a life of their own, and that life wants nothing to do with other life forms, warning as best they can without lips or speech to _stay away._

 _"_ Okay— one, two...THREE!” Woojin flinches as he throws the cupboard door open and Jihoon snickers behind him. When Woojin opens his eyes to peek, he doesn’t find any corpses, just some junk, and a few spiders.

“Is that a ghost?” Jihoon points.

“It’s a coat hanger.”

They take a look through the closet, jean-clad knees on cold concrete. Woojin rifles through the boxes while Jihoon shoes the spiders away— It’s good teamwork.

The boxes are full of mostly trash, things he picks up and immediately throws behind him, sometimes with a funny comment and sometimes with Jihoon rescuing it, like the wooden yo-yo he picks up and starts playing with.

Only one thing catches Woojin’s interest— at the bottom of the first box he finds a photograph. It’s sepia-toned and cracked from age and stress, but it’s there.

“Hey, come look at this.” He waves Jihoon over, not taking his eyes off the photo even as he feels Jihoon kneel beside him again.

It’s a photo of a group of boys, nine of them if Woojin is counting right in the minimal light. They’re all wearing shirts and shorts and look to be somewhere in their teens. There’s a banner behind them reading ‘easter sermon, 1920’ and Jihoon’s heart sinks as he remembers the pages he’s scrolled through in the middle of the night with burning eyes and coffee to keep him awake.

Everyone at that sermon died. Someone dipped the eggs they hunted in poison, and with the limited healthcare back then, those kids were dead the second their hands touched it, though they wouldn’t _truly_ be dead until a few no doubt long, painful days later.

The photograph unsettles him, as they always do. There’s something about looking at an image of someone you know is no dead, something about seeing them as if they’re still there that shifts something in his brain until it’s tangled up and he’s not sure if the image even existing is right and all.

“What the hell kind of hairstyle is that? They look like coconut head, y’know, from Ned’s declassified school survival guide?”

Woojin can’t help it, He snorts out a laugh, letting the photo fall from his fingers as he reaches up to cover his mouth.

 

It started like this:

It’s their first season of BuzzFeedfeed Unsolved and Jihoon is a great co-host, a great performer, and a great friend.

They deal with heavy stuff, especially on the true crime seasons when they can’t even comfort themselves with the thought that 'maybe it isn’t real' because the facts are in front of their faces. But this is the company that has about five hundred different quizzes to tell you what cupcake you are— they don’t do heavy.

Jihoon does an incredible job of keeping the spirits (no pun intended) on set light. He’s sharp and annoying and honestly, this may have been Woojin’s idea but he doesn’t think he could do it without him.

When supernatural starts, Jihoon is there with quick, featherlight touches that reassure Woojin he’s safe. He’s there with his denials and Woojin will never admit that sometimes, in the moment, it’s a comfort to hear them, but Jihoon probably knows.

They were great friends before, but filming Unsolved teaches him that Jihoon is the best friend he could ever have.

  


“Is anyone here? Perhaps one of the boys in this photograph?”

They’re sitting cross-legged on the floor with the spirit box between them. When Woojin bought it the seller insisted it could be used to talk to ghosts, Woojin agreed, Jihoon called it a broken bluetooth speaker.

There’s static for a long moment as the box does its thing and flickers between radio channels every millisecond. Woojin hears a 'yes; and a chill of both fear and excitement shoots down his spine.

“Did you hear that?” He asks Jihoon. “It said yes!”

“I heard nothing.” Jihoon rolls his eyes.

Woojin ignores him.

“Who are you?” he asks the air around him, and he can swear if he focuses he can _feel_ something in that air that makes his hairs stand on the edge and his synapses fire and his soul whisper _‘something is here, something is here, something is here.’_

The crackly, tinny voice comes through the spirit box again and Jihoon comments on it before Woojin does.

“And what did it say this time?”

“It said—“ Woojin pauses, mulling over the sounds and matching them with words in his mind. “I’m feeling so energetic.”

Jihoon splutters, flailing his arms dramatically. “How can it be feeling energetic? It’s dead! I’m _alive_ and I barely have energy!”

The voice comes through again and Woojin jumps, not having expected it because he was focused on Jihoon. He reaches out for the other boy’s hand instinctively before pulling it back.

 

It started like this:

It’s their last episode of the first season, so of course, as a finale, it has to be the scariest.

They’re in a prison. It’s a dark, dank place. Woojin can _feel_ the mould on the walls and the leaks in the ceiling. The halls are long and narrow, not even enough space for him and Jihoon to walk side by side.

The lights flicker, footsteps sound past, things move to the point where even Jihoon has to admit there’s _something_ going on.

It’s the one time Woojin truly thinks he’s got himself in too deep and he ends up hyperventilating in the corner, flashlight flickering against the wall due to his shaking hands.

Jihoon leans down onto the floor and takes Woojin in his arms, so his back is against Jihoon’s chest. The cameras stop rolling and Jihoon whispers into his neck “don’t be scared” and “I won’t let anything hurt you” but not “they’re not real” because though they may bicker on camera and off, Jihoon would never seriously crush Woojin’s belief, not in a moment like this.

Woojin’s heart rate starts to slow down at the sound of Jihoon’s gentle voice and...oh.

Somewhere, between the laughter and the long nights filming and the goodnight texts, he fell in love.

 

They wrap up filming in the church , but it’s not over. They pile up to the upper floor of the church and pull out sleeping bags and a few cameras attached to tripods since the crew got to sleep in the van and not a musty old church.

Sleeping over in the haunted places they visit is both Woojin’s least favourite and favourite part. His least favourite because closing his eyes in a place that he knows very well is most likely haunted isn’t easy, and letting his mind rest enough to sleep is even harder. Favourite, because Jihoon sleeps next to him, talking to him through the night, making his presence known even when he should be sleeping.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Jihoon asks. He’s lit by the faint glow of the lamps they’ve kept on and his eyes seem warm and bright, like a fireplace drawing Woojin in on a cold day. He gets caught up staring at them for a moment, and Jihoon apparently takes this as him not understanding the question— if he’s honest, he barely remembers it, not when Jihoon’s hair is falling softly in his face. “Is this a case for mystery inc.?”

“Mystery inc. only caught fake ghosts,” Woojin says. “It was like...the whole thing...and they would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling kid.”

Jihoon sighs. “I’m not having scooby doo discourse with you, not at this time of night. Really, what do you think?”

Woojin shrugs. “I’d say it’s haunted, yeah. But I know you’re gonna disagree.”

Jihoon shrugs again, and there’s suddenly a smile playing on his lips. “It depends.”

“Depends on what?” Woojin asks, wondering why his heart is hammering and his breath suddenly hitches when everything is the same as it was a moment ago.

 

It ends like this:

You’d think, after years of friendship and months of unconfessed love and pining, it would end with a bang.

But that’s not how they do things. They are not dramatic confessions, practiced words and grand romantic locations. They are in-jokes, sudden moments of bravery, and abandoned buildings.

“It depends,” Jihoon repeats. “Is that a ghost?”

Woojin furrows his eyebrows. He doesn’t know what Jihoon is talking about this time, and all he can think is he really hopes a spider hasn’t crawled on him in the night.

“Is what a ghost?”

“That,” Jihoon says, reaching to stroke Woojin’s bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. Then, he leans in and kisses him, feather-light, soft as their voices in the dark.

“Th-those are my lips,” Woojin says, stupidly, because he’s shocked and he’s exhausted and the boy he loves just kissed him on the dusty floor of a haunted church and this is his life. “But...maybe you should do that again, just to make sure.”

Jihoon complies happily.

 

“There wasn’t any activity last night on the upper floor of the church. A few creaks and groans here and there, but I’ll admit that happens in old buildings.

“Yeah,” Jihoon says, popping into frame. “Nothing unusual happened last night, nothing at all, totally ordinary.”

Woojin resists the urge to either push him or kiss him— he isn’t sure which yet, he’ll see when the cameras turn off.

“Anyway, for now it looks like the mystery of ‘are ghosts real’ will remain...unsolved.”


End file.
